Pyote Air Force Base - Postwar Use

Postwar Use

Control of Pyote was transferred from the Fourth Air Force to the Air Technical Service Command / San Antonio Air Technical Service Command on November 15, 1945, at the end of the war. The base became an aircraft storage depot.

At its peak in 1948, Pyote Air Force Base was maintained by the 4141st Army Air Forces (later Air Force) Base Unit, and housed 2,042 stored planes, mostly B-29s and B-17s, but including B-25s, A-26s, C-47s, P-63s, P-51s, AT-7s, L-5s and L-4s.

Aircraft storage and the cocooning of some of these planes was the last major activity at Pyote Airfield, which was the responsibility of the 2753d Aircraft Storage Squadron. Storage included not only preserving planes for future use but also transferring some of the stored planes to other Air Force units for their use.

For example, many of the B-29's stored at Pyote would again see service in the Korean War and would be flown by the men of the 19th Bomb Group. This is the same group that was the first to serve at Pyote. Corrosion control crews removed, cleaned and treated the turrets in all of the B-29s. The aircraft were "cocooned" to seal out the elements from the interior, and the aircraft were kept in flyable reserve storage. During the Korean War, numerous B-25, B-26 and B-29 aircraft were returned to service, while some stored B-29s were authorized to be used for cannibalization to furnish spare parts to operational aircraft.

Best known of all the aircraft stored at Pyote was the B-29 Enola Gay, from which the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Arriving at Pyote on 12 January 1952, the ownership of the aircraft was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The Enola Gay was taken out of storage and flown to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland on December 2, 1953, for preservation at the National Air and Space Museum. It was the last time the Enola Gay flew. Two other notable aircraft put in storage at Pyote was the B-17D "Swoose" (arrived 18 January 1952 - Departed December 1953) which was the only B-17 to survive the bombing of Clark Air Base on 8 December 1941 and manage to escape from the Philippines, and the XB-42 Mixmaster, a one-of-a-kind aircraft.

After the Korean War and the air battles between the B-29s and Soviet MiG-15s, it was clear that the age of the jet had arrived which made most of the propeller-driven combat aircraft stored at Pyote obsolete. Most of the remaining planes at Pyote were ordered to be scrapped, and most activity on the base ceased. The last Base Commander, Lt. Col. Max A. Piper, was notified that the base was scheduled for deactivation on 31 December 1953. Prior to the closing of the base, the most important task was the reclamation and salvage of the stored aircraft. The B-29s stored at the base were very important as the reclamation process consisted of removing all serviceable and reparable items to support the operational B-29s still in service. A smelter was installed on the base and as the aircraft were disassembled and parts removed, the remnants were recycled with the metal sold for scrap. On 31 December 1953, the base went on standby status, leaving only a twenty-seven man caretaker crew to maintain the base.

In April 1958, the base was reopened as Pyote Air Force Station (TM-186), a radar installation acting as one link in a chain of installations that were part of an early warning network in case of Soviet air attack during the Cold War. The 697th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, an Air Defense Command 34th Air Division unit, operated a radar site approximately 3.6 miles (5.8 km) southeast of the main containment area 31°28′46″N 103°11′26″W / 31.47944°N 103.19056°W / 31.47944; -103.19056 (TM-186). The 697th ACWS operated a Bendix AN/FPS-3 search radar with a range of around 200 miles; it also operated a General Electric AN/FPS-6 height finder radar with a range around 300 miles,. The station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes.

In March 1963 the Air Force ordered the site to close. Operations at Pyote ceased on 1 August 1963. With the ADC facility closed, Pyote AFB was declared surplus, and turned over to the General Services Administration (GSA) for disposal.