Gunter Annex / Gunter Basic Flying Training School

On 27 Aug. 1940, the AAF leased Montgomery Municipal Airport for use as a military airfield. During World War II, the field became home to the AAF Basic Flying Training School and was named in honor of Mayor William A. Gunter. The school, activated the same day, was among the first established under the wartime Air Corps expansion program. BT-13s were the principal aircraft used in the 10-week training course until 1944, when AT-6s replaced them. At one point, nearly 400 airplanes took part in the program, and the skies over the field were hailed as the "densest air traffic in the world." The school closed in September 1945 after more than 12,000 American, British, and French cadets had earned their wings there, with British cadets dominating the early classes, and 600 Chinese students received preflight training there at the war's end. The field later housed the Extension Course Institute, AU Field Printing Plant, School of Aviation Medicine, and Air Force Senior NCO Academy, while tenants included the Air Defense Sector, HQ 14th Air Force, and Standard Systems Group. It became an Air Force base in 1948, an Air Force station in 1973, returned to base status in 1988, and became an annex to Maxwell AFB in 1992.

Montgomery, Alabama · United States