In 1942, as America prepared Army Air Corps cadets for overseas combat groups, Allison Prairie in Lawrence County, Illinois, was chosen for a new training base because of its size and varied weather patterns. The War Department announced the selection on April 16, 1942, and began construction in June. On August 10, Colonel George W. Mundy took command of the 2,836-acre complex, named George Field in honor of the late Brigadier General Harold "Pursuit" George. The first class of cadets arrived on October 10, and six days later Major General Ralph Royce dedicated the field before a crowd of 25,000 residents and Army personnel. Colonel Edwin B. Bobzien took command in November. Cadets there entered advanced two-engine school training in Beech AT-10s after completing pre-flight, primary, and basic training, and the school graduated 1,934 cadets in its first year. The nineteenth and final class graduated on August 4, 1944. After August 15, 1944, George Field became a glider-towing school, with C-47s towing CG4-A gliders built to carry up to twenty-four men. The 805th troop carrier command, under Colonel Tracy K. Dorsett, assumed control until the Army closed the field on January 31, 1946, and in 1948 the federal government deeded the land and facility to the City of Lawrenceville.