Laredo Air Force Base
Laredo Air Force Base | |||||||||||||||||||
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AMSL 508 ft / 155 m | | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 27°32′37″N 99°27′41″W / 27.54361°N 99.46139°W | ||||||||||||||||||
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Laredo Army Air Field, Texas
, 22 January 1944.Laredo Air Force Base, is a since-deactivated
U.S. Army Air Force
facility that began operations in November 1942, primarily as an aerial gunnery school with an associated gunnery range.
The field became inactive in late 1945 and the property reverted to the city of Laredo, which used it as a municipal airport until 1950. That year, the base was reactivated and renamed Laredo Air Force Base in April 1952 to provide intermediate and advanced flight training for jet pilots, including pilot trainees from 24 countries. In the early 1960s, the Air Training Command transitioned to the
Undergraduate Pilot Training
(UPT) concept, where student pilots would take all flight training from basic through advanced at a single base.
The initial host unit stationed at Laredo AFB was the 3640th Pilot Training Wing, later superseded by the
Moody AFB, Georgia where it absorbed the resources and personnel of the 3350th Flying Training Wing. With the 38 FTW's departure, Laredo AFB was closed and turned over to the City of Laredo. Today the facility is known as Laredo International Airport
.
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