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Historic Posts, Camps, Stations, and Airfields

West Coast Air Corps Training Center

(West Coast Training Command, Western Flying Training Command)

 

The West Coast Air Corps Training Center was activated on July 8, 1940. The Center was located at Moffett Field. However, the Navy wanted to expand its facilities to support its lighter than air base so the Army had to look elsewhere for its operations. A new site was obtained at 1104 West Eighth Street in Santa Ana on seven acres leased from the City of Santa Ana for $1 a year. The center was to have a new building costing $250,000 west of the municipal bowl. The WCACTC, which eventually became the Army Air Force West Coast Training Command (WCTC), was the headquarters for all the eleven western states air cadet-training facilities, including the Santa Ana Army Air Base also in Santa Ana. Its function was to direct all of the activity in connection with supplying pilots, navigators and bombardiers for the nation's Air Force. Major General Ralph P. Cousins was the Commander. With the outbreak of World War II, the command added many new facilities.

 

On December 7, 1941 the WCTC had six Army flying schools and nine civilian contract schools in operation. By the end of 1942 there were 22 Army schools and 21 civilian contract schools. A fast pace of pilot training for the next two years resulted in meeting and exceeding all goals so that by the summer of 1944, many of the training schools were closed. By the end of 1945 the WCTC had little left to administer.

 

On November 15, 1945 the WFTC was disestablished. The buildings at 1104 W. Eighth St. closed their doors. The Santa Ana headquarters had once controlled the training activities of 148 military installations in 19 states. The WFTC had reached its peak in early 1944 with about 200,000 trainees and officers assigned to 42 college training detachments, 18 primary flying schools, 11 basic schools and 16 advanced pilot schools as well as special bombardier, gunnery, navigation, glider pilot and transition bases. In the following month all of the headquarter buildings were declared surplus. On November 15, 1945 the Central Flying Command headquarters at Randolph Field, Texas, was redesignated the Western Flying Training Command.

In January 1946 the City of Santa Ana gained permission to operate the abandoned headquarters of the old WFTC as a temporary housing center for WWII veterans and their families during the home shortage period. In April, the work of remodeling the former WFTC buildings into housing units began.

So ends the record of one of the mightiest human efforts to develop the world's greatest air force in three years.

See The SAAAB Story by Edrick J. Miller pages 213 to 220 for a listing of all the training bases under the control of the WFTC.

 

References: The SAAAB Story by Edrick J. Miller, 1981. The Costa Mesa Historical Society. Santa Ana, Orange County.

 

 

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