History
First constructed in 1941 as the Pueblo Army Air Base, it was used as an advanced flying school to train B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator four engine heavy bomber crews. It was under the command of the United States Army Air Forces Second Air Force 360th Army Air Force Base Unit. Known bomb groups which trained or based at Pueblo were:
- 94th Bombardment Group (B-17) January - April 1943
- 302d Bombardment Group (B-24) 30 September 1942 - 1 December 1942
- 351st Bombardment Group (B-17) 1 March - 12 April 1943
- 381st Bombardment Group (B-17) 5 April - 9 May 1943
- 400th Bombardment Group (B-17) 2 May - 31 July 1943
- 466th Bombardment Group (B-29) 25 July - 15 August 1945
- 469th Bombardment Group (B-24) 1–7 May 1943
- 471st Bombardment Group (B-24) 7 May 1943 - 28 January 1944
The history of the Air Base is preserved with the Pueblo Historical Aircraft Society and its Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum.
In 1948, it was handed over to the City of Pueblo for commercial and public use. In the 1960s the main east-west runway (8/26) was extended from 6,000' to 10,000' to accommodate jet aircraft.
Today, Pueblo Memorial Airport is home of the United States Air Force Initial Flight Screening (IFS) program, which began operations on October 1, 2006. Doss Aviation, under contract with the USAF conducts flight screening for between 1300 and 1700 USAF trainees annually.
Read more about this topic: Pueblo Memorial Airport
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