Rice Army Air Field (also known as Rice Air Base or Rice AAF) is an abandoned
World War II airfield in
Rice Valley of the southern
Mojave Desert, located east-southeast of the community of
Rice. The airfield is located in
Riverside County just south of the
San Bernardino county line and
State Route 62.
Wartime use
Rice AAF was acquired 29 September 1942 and was part of the
World War II Desert Training Center in the
Mojave Desert of
Southern California. It apparently was a civil airfield before the war, known as "Rice Municipal Airport", its origins are unknown.
The mission of the training center was to prepare United States Army ground forces in preparation for
Operation Torch
Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – Run for Tunis, 16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of secu ...
– the invasion of North Africa. The center was commanded by then
Brigadier General George Patton
George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...
. The facility was assigned to
United States Army Air Forces Fourth Air Force. The airfield consisted of two 5,000-foot runways with numerous dispersal pads extending off the runways to the south, and support facilities and barracks to house about 3,000 personnel.
Under the
IV Air Support Command in 1942 and early 1943; the
71st Reconnaissance Group and the
85th Bombardment Group flew reconnaissance and dive bomber training missions with the Army ground forces in the DTC.
After most Army units had deployed to overseas theaters by mid-1943, Rice AAF became a
Fourth Air Force group training facility for units deploying to combat commands overseas, training pilots and aircrew with a wide variety of tactical aircraft, from light observation planes to medium bombers. Known units assigned to Rice were:
*
312th Bombardment Group
31 may refer to:
* 31 (number)
Years
* 31 BC
* AD 31
* 1931 CE ('31)
* 2031 CE ('31)
Music
* ''Thirty One'' (Jana Kramer album), 2015
* ''Thirty One'' (Jarryd James album), 2015
* "Thirty One", a song by Karma to Burn from the album ''Wild, ...
, 13 April – 15 August 1943
*
339th Fighter Group
The 339th Fighter Group was a unit of the United States Air Forces during World War II.Maurer, Maurer (1983). ''Air Force Combat Units Of World War II''. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. . It comprised the 503rd, 504th, and 5 ...
, September 1943 – March 1944
By May 1944, the airfield was assigned to the
15th Bombardment Wing
15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 and preceding 16.
Mathematics
15 is:
* A composite number, and the sixth semiprime; its proper divisors being , and .
* A deficient number, a smooth number, a lucky number, a pernicio ...
at
March Field as a sub-base. Military operations at Rice Army Air Field ended in August 1944, and the field was declared surplus in October. The facility was inactivated and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers on 1 January 1946.
Civil use
The War Assets Administration turned the military airfield to civil control, and was reused starting at some point in 1949 as a civilian airport.
Rice was depicted as an active public-use airfield on the March 1952 San Diego Sectional Chart. The chart depicted Rice as having a 5,000' paved runway. The status of the Rice airfield evidently changed to a private airfield at some point between 1952 and 1955, as that is how it was depicted on the September 1955 San Diego Sectional Chart. The Rice Airport was evidently abandoned (for reasons unknown) at some point between 1955 and 1958.
Today no standing structures remain of Rice Army Air Field and little but deteriorating concrete and bituminous runways remain in the desert. Two runways, one oriented NW/SE; the other NE/SW are faintly visible in aerial photography along with numerous fighter dispersal pads. A concrete parking area still exists about south of California Highway 62, which runs east/west north of the airfield. Dirt bike and dune buggy trails in the area obscure any evidence of roads or building foundations in what probably was the ground station. Generally, the entire area has reverted to its natural state.
it was proposed that the Rice AAF site be used for the
Rice Solar Energy Project.
Rice Solar Energy Project
/ref>
See also
* California World War II Army Airfields
During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) established numerous airfields in California for training pilots and aircrews of USAAF fighters and bombers.
Most of these airfields were under the command of Fourth Air Force or the A ...
* Desert Training Center
* Rice, California
Rice, formerly named Blythe Junction, is a former town in the Rice Valley and the southern tip of the Mojave Desert, and within unincorporated San Bernardino County, southern California. Although it is still on many maps, the only things remain ...
References
* Maurer, Maurer (1983). ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .
*
* Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), ''Locating Air Force Base Sites History’s Legacy'', Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004.
The California State Military Museum Historic California Posts: Rice Army Air Field
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Defunct airports in California
Airports in Riverside County, California
Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in California
Military facilities in the Mojave Desert
Military in Riverside County, California
World War II airfields in the United States
Airports established in 1942
1942 establishments in California
1944 disestablishments in California