At its greatest strength, Courtland Army Air Field was home to 4600 officers, enlisted servicemen, and cadets, and during the war years it was the largest population center within Lawrence County. More than 370 structures were built there, including aircraft hangars, operations buildings, warehouses, barracks, mess halls, maintenance facilities, water supply and sewage treatment facilities, a weather station, and a hospital. To help accommodate the sudden influx of personnel during construction and after activation, local residents opened their homes to servicemen and their wives. Electricity was supplied by TVA, a railroad spur was built to receive materials and fuel, and a small arms range and chemical gas chamber supported training requirements. Day-to-day needs and recreation were served by a PX, officers and enlisted clubs, a chapel, and two theaters, while an Army band based there toured local communities to boost morale and support War Bond drives, and servicemen used nearby Tennessee River leisure opportunities when schedules allowed. As demand for pilot training declined during 1943-44, many airfields across the nation were gradually deactivated, and as an emergency temporary construction Courtland Army Air Field was slated for closure and officially deactivated on 30 June 1945. Over the next three decades, most of its buildings were removed or destroyed. Around 1950, at the request of the Ala Air National Guard, a steel-framed hangar was moved to the Birmingham Municipal Airport. Until the mid-1980s, the property was used as a poultry farm, an auto race course, an auction facility, and a base for crop duster aircraft. Other proposed uses, including a horse race track, a coal gasification plant, and a prison, never materialized. In 1985 Lawrence County acquired the land for an industrial park, and a public airport was activated using two of the original runways. The 1990s brought a rebirth of the site with several light industrial businesses and a Lockheed-Martin missile assembly plant, and U.S. Army aviation returned in 2010 when the Redstone Test Center began using the property for helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft testing.