Craig Air Force Base near
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and extending to the west. Located on the banks of the Alabama River, the city has a population of 17,971 as of the 2020 census. About ...
, was a
U.S. Air Force undergraduate pilot training (UPT) installation that closed in 1977. Today the facility is a civilian airport known as
Craig Field Airport and Industrial Complex (ICAO: KSEM; FAA: SEM).
History
World War II
Originally built by the
U.S. Army Air Force
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
in 1940 to accommodate the growing number of flight trainees before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Craig Field was one of the first training fields to offer single-engine training. Its first graduating class of 1941, the 39 cadets of Class 41D, completed the training course seven months before the United States' entry into World War II.
The naming of the base was important to the nearby city of Selma, and several names were considered. The name finally chosen was to honor 1st Lt Bruce Kilpatrick Craig, who was killed when his B-24 crashed in June 1941. He was born in Selma and was initially commissioned as an officer in the Infantry Reserve prior to transferring to the Army Air Force and attending flight training.
Army Air Force pilot training in 1941 was still considered as being peacetime and included a seventy-hour flying course. With the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 training was accelerated to speed the flow of pilots into combat. In total Craig Field graduated more than 9,000 pilots before the end of the war. Craig Field also saw a number of British
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
trainees. By 1943, 1,392 RAF cadets had earned their wings at Craig Field. Following the war, the mission of Craig Field changed from time to time, but it remained primarily a training base.
When the U.S. Air Force was established as a separate service in 1947, Craig Field was renamed Craig Air Force Base.
Cold War
With the desperate need for additional pilots created by the Korean War, Craig AFB was once again placed in the pilot training business by initiating the 3615th Pilot Training Wing in September 1950. The program stopped its basic single engine training and focused its efforts on pilot instructor training.
In 1972, the by then-3615th Flying Training Wing was replaced by the 29th Flying Training Wing of the
Air Training Command
Air Training Command (ATC) is a former United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command designation. It was headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, but was initially formed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was re-designated as Ai ...
and operated
T-41,
T-37 and
T-38 T38 or T-38 may refer to:
* T38 (classification), a disability sport classification for disability athletics
* T.38, a standard for fax over IP
* T-38 tank, a Soviet light tank
* Allison T38, a turboprop aircraft engine
* Northrop T-38 Talon, a U.S ...
training aircraft.
Representative of the time, Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 68-H, "The Haranguers," graduated with more than 50 new pilots in June 1968. Most of the pilots entered the "pipeline" for assignments to Vietnam in a variety of aircraft, including the
F-4C
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bo ...
,
F-4E
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American Tandem#Aviation, tandem two-seat, twinjet, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic aircraft, supersonic jet interceptor aircraft, interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed ...
Phantom II,
RF-4C Phantom II,
C-47
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...
,
C-7 and
C-123
The Fairchild C-123 Provider is an American military transport aircraft designed by Chase Aircraft and then built by Fairchild Aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. In addition to its USAF service, which included later service with the Air Force Rese ...
. Other pilots went to
Lockheed C-130 Hercules,
Lockheed C-141 Starlifter,
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...
and
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker
The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It is the predominant variant of the C-135 Stratolifter family of transpor ...
assignments. In addition to Air Force student pilots, the class included students from the
Marine Corps, the
Air National Guard
The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the ter ...
and the former
Imperial Iranian Air Force.
As an active air force base, Craig had two 8,000-foot parallel runways, a large aircraft parking ramp and several large maintenance hangars.
Closure
In 1974, Craig AFB was selected as one of two UPT bases to be closed in a post-Vietnam economic move. In 1977,
Air Training Command
Air Training Command (ATC) is a former United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command designation. It was headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, but was initially formed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was re-designated as Ai ...
closed Craig Air Force Base along with
Webb Air Force Base
Webb Air Force Base , previously named Big Spring Air Force Base, was a United States Air Force facility of the Air Training Command that operated from 1951 to 1977 in West Texas within the current city limits of Big Spring. Webb AFB was a maj ...
in Texas. The base's 29th Flying Training Wing was inactivated on 30 September 1977 and the field was placed on caretaker status the next day.
Current use
After the base closed, the airfield was converted into a civil airport for Selma, Alabama, and renamed the Craig Field Airport and Industrial Complex. Although the former USAF air traffic control tower at Craig Field remains standing, as of 2007 it was unmanned and non-operational, with
UNICOM being used as a common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF). Both parallel 8,000-foot runways still exist, but only one runway is currently operational while the other remains closed. The Craig
VORTAC and the
Instrument Landing System (ILS) for the current Runway 33 remain operational on the field. Current aircraft traffic averages approximately 106 daily operations, of which 83% are transient general aviation, 10% military (primarily Navy and USAF aircraft inbound to the L3 Communications/Vertex Aerospace facility) and 7% local general aviation or air taxi.
The former military family housing was sold to individual owners shortly after base closure and has seen significant decay as compared to its previous military occupants.
Multiple civilian government and corporate tenants have taken up residency, including
L3 Communications
L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training ...
/Vertex Aerospace (formerly Raytheon Aerospace), which run an aircraft repair facility focused on supporting Navy
Beechcraft T-34 Mentor (T-34Cs),
T-44A, T
C-12F and Navy and USAF
T-6A
The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company (Textron Aviation since 2014). A trainer aircraft based on the Pilatus PC-9, the T-6 has replaced the United States Air Force's Cessna T ...
aircraft. The former on base elementary school continues to operate as the civilian-run Craig Elementary and the former base golf course continues to operate commercially as the Craig Golf Course and Driving Range. The
Alabama Highway Patrol
The Alabama Highway Patrol is the ''de facto'' highway patrol organization for the U.S. state of Alabama, and which has full jurisdiction anywhere in the State. The Alabama Highway Patrol was created in 1936. Since its establishment, 29 officers h ...
(AHP) also operates both its training academy and its headquarters for AHP's F Troop at Craig.
Units assigned
* 67th Air Base Group (later 67th Service Group) 16 December 1940-c. October 1942
* Air Corps Advanced Flying School (Single Engine) (later Army Air Forces Flying School (Advanced) c. 1 August 1941 – 15 December 1945
* 53d Air Base Group, c. 1 August 1941 – November 1941
* 73d Air Base Group, c. 1 August 1941-c. November 1941
*
28th Flying Training Wing, 8 January 1943-c. 1 August 1945
* 2138th AAF Base Unit, 1 May 1944 – 15 December 1945
* 44th AAF Base Unit (later 44th AF Base Unit), 16 December 1945 – 17 November 1947
* 501st Air University Wing, 17 November 1947 – 28 July 1948
* 3840th Air University Wing (later
3615th Pilot Training Wing, 3615th Flying Training Wing, 3615th Pilot Training Wing), 21 July 1948 – 1 July 1972
* USAF Pilot Instructor School (later Pilot Instructor School), 1 September 1950 – 1 September 1960
* USAF Pilot School, 5 January 1961 – 30 September 1977
* USAF Primary Pilot Instructor School, 1 September 1960 – 1 September 1961
*
29th Flying Training Wing
The 29th Flying Training Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit last based at Craig Air Force Base, Alabama. It was inactivated when Craig was closed when the Air Force reduced its pilot training program after the Vietnam War.
The un ...
– 29 March 1972 to 30 September 1977
::
43d Flying Training Squadron
The 43d Flying Training Squadron is part of the 340th Flying Training Group and is the reserve associate to the 14th Flying Training Wing based at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. It operates Raytheon T-1 Jayhawk, Beechcraft T-6 Texan II ...
– 1 July 1972 to 30 September 1977
::
52d Flying Training Squadron – 1 July 1972 to 30 September 1977
References
#
52d Flying Training Squadron entryat Air Force Historical Research Agency
External links
Craig Field Airport and Industrial Complex websiteAerial View at Google Maps
{{coord, 32, 20, 38, N, 086, 59, 16, W, display=inline,title
Defunct airports in Alabama
Installations of the United States Air Force in Alabama
Military installations closed in 1977
Selma, Alabama
Airports in Dallas County, Alabama