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When World War Two finally broke out on 1st of September, 1939, the United States was staying isolated from the rest of the world. It figured it was safe from fighting for couple of years. As the 1940’s started, U. S. military was starting a gradual build up of men and equipment. By the time the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army Air Corp had close to 150 airfields. By the peak of the war in late 1943, there were 345 main bases, 116 sub-bases and 322 auxiliary fields. Kingman Army Air Field was one of the main bases including Yucca Army Air Field as it’s sub base and had 5 auxiliary fields at Red Lake, Hackberry (Antares), Topock, Havasu (site 6), and Signal.

As the war progressed, Mohave County Chamber of Commerce was sending telegrams to the President and the War Department. The chamber was letting the government know that the good folks of Mohave County wanted to do their part of protecting America. The telegrams and communications happen during the year of 1940.

The Range Estimation

The Army Air Corps started to look at Hualapai Valley for their next airfield. In March, 1941, Major John C. Horton and Captain Mauhan made a visit to Kingman and met with Mohave County Officials. This is the first of many visits by Major Horton and other officers of the Air Corps to evaluate the possibilities of Hualapai Valley for a major airfield. On December 7th, Pearl Harbor is attacked and the country goes to war with Japan and Germany.

In 1942, events make Kingman beehive of activity. Port Kingman becomes a pilot training program airport. The Army Air Forces speeds up building of Army Air Force Flexible Gunnery School at Kingman. On 10th of August, the school is officially open for training. On 5th of October, the 460th Base Headquarters & Air Base Squadron, 1100th Guard Squadron & 334th Aviation Squadron were established. On 21st of October, the 1120th, 1121st, 1122nd, & 1123rd Flexible Gunnery Training Squadrons were set up to train the gunnery student at the school. Since there were no buildings at the school, the first personnel worked out the Harvey House in downtown Kingman. Towards the end of year, school personnel start taking up residence on the possibly the 6th largest airfield in the Army Air Force system.

The KAAF Bugs Bunny Patch & KAAF Reunions Logo

'Bugs Bunny' became the base's official mascot, because of so many 'rabbits' in the area. Lieutenant William L. McCurdy got permission to use 'Bugs' from his producer Leon Schlesinger. 'Bugs' held the rank of technical sergeant. This happens by 14 January, 1943.

The first training class, Class 43-8 had begun training at the school. The majority of the class was bombardiers' & the class size was 40 students. The class started on 18 January, 1943. Training for the gunnery students varied during KAAF operations. By starting out with small classes working up to 300 students was set by orders for Air Force Command. The training would begin with the basics, bb guns, shotguns, Thompson machine guns, .30 cal machine guns then to .50 cal machine guns. Classroom training would take about two to three weeks. Then they would train at the ground firing facility. The last week would be for flying. The training course change through the school’s operations, at one time it was 6 weeks, then to 8 weeks. The students were trained on Jam Handy trainers and Sperry trainers. For flying training, they used AT-6 at first, then finally new B-17s arrived on the airfield, then the student would fly in them for their training missions. At graduation, the student would earn the gunnery wings and become flying sergeants. KAAF had training over 36,000 gunners in the few years of operations. In 1945, class sizes went for 300 to smaller class size of 100 to 50. The last class completed there was June or July.

Classroom Training

Flying Classroom Mission

The Army Air Force Flexible Gunnery School, Kingman, Az. was renamed Kingman Army Air Field on 7th of May, 1943. The school did not change from its primary mission, training gunners for the B-17. KAAF was a 100% B-17 training school. In January, 1944, KAAF added Four Engine Transition Group (Co-Pilot) program. The program used the TB-26 and lasted about 18 months. KAAF had trained two classes of WASP during the year of 1944. On 1st of May, 1944, 460th Base Headquarters & Air Base Squadron became 3018th Army Air Force Base Unit. As the war winded down in 1945, the 3018th was reassigned to 4184th AAFBU on 29th of September, 1945. As the war ended, on 2nd of September, 1945, so did the KAAF mission. KAAF was order to close down. Kingman Army Air Field’s last day was 25th of February, 1946. The 4184th AAFBU on 26th of February was changed to 4126th and placed on Temporary Duty.

War Asset Administration Storage Depot 41

After the war in late 1945, preparations were being made to change KAAF assignment from Army Air Force Base to Storage Depot 41. On 1st of October, 1945, Western Flying Training Command turned over KAAF to Air Technical Service Command. KAAF would become an aircraft storage facility. The first aircraft to be received by KAAF happen on 10th of October, 1945. On 23rd of November, 1945, ATSC at San Bernardino AAF, CA. signs an agreement with Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The RFC assigned KAAF as Storage Depot 41. Julian Myers is the contractor and is in charge for RFC Sales and Storage Depot 41. By the first of May, 1946, Depot 41 had sold 1 BT-13 and 6 AT-6s by the War Asset Administration. On 9th of August, 1946, WAA awards Martin Wunderlich Company of Jefferson City, Mo. the bid of $2,780,000 to destroy 5540 aircraft being stored at KAAF. On 10th of July, 1947, Mohave County was granted access to KAAF, this is the first step in gaining control of the airfield. On 1st of July, 1948, WAA turns over KAAF to Mohave County’s control. By early December, WAA had ended their stay. They turned of 9 buildings to county. Julian Myers, who is in charge of Storage Depot 41 tells that they sold some 400 buildings, 5634 aircraft were processed and approximately $850,000 personnel properly disposed of. The Kingman Army Air Field Historical Society and Museum is working to preserve this history for every American to understand the mission of Kingman Army Air Field.