[2] For nearly 50 years, ATC was the primary training organization of the United States Air Force from its inception as an independent service in September 1947.

[2] At the end of the Cold War, it was merged with Air University (AU) in July 1993 as part of a major top-to-bottom reorganization of the USAF.

The Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 and the end of the war in the Pacific in September 1945 began a rapid demobilization of the U.S. armed forces.

Large numbers of temporary training bases were closed and units were discontinued in late 1945 and early 1946 as the US military transitioned from a wartime footing to a peacetime one.

[2] The Army Air Forces had set a post-war goal of 70 groups; however, Congress balked at funding the ambitious undertaking.

Their mission was to indoctrinate USAAF (later USAF) units and individuals destined for polar assignments in personal survival and in the care and use of equipment in cold weather climates.

That left the schools with a high percentage of instructors with little, if any, teaching experience and, in some cases, very limited knowledge of course material.

Training Command losses from separations were not made up by gains from recruits and returnees and shortages were particularly acute in maintenance, mess, clerical, and medical personnel.

Then the personnel withdrawals that had to be made in support of the Berlin Airlift and the expansion of Strategic Air Command combined to handicap even more the training bases at the same time that pilot production increased.

[14] In a 17 September letter to the field, Headquarters USAF directed all commands to release many highly experienced personnel in support of the Berlin Airlift.

[16] ATC's primary mission in the Korean War was to train pilots, navigators and enlisted aircrew for combat and to fill the need of the expanded 95-wing USAF.

A former World War II Navy Seebee training facility known as Camp Parks, the Air Force had to completely rebuild the base.

Clothing stocks had to be drastically reduced at other ATC bases so recruits could receive essential clothing—although it was impossible to provide exact sizes.

Lackland AFB completely exhausted the Air Force's supply of steel folding cots and mattresses.

[21] Even as combat continued in Korea, during 1952 the Air Force expanded to meet the threat of the Cold War with the Soviet Union in Europe, and potentially a direct conflict with Communist China in Asia.

At the same time, Secretary Sharp approved initiation of a consolidated pilot training program, ATC decided to replace all civilian flying instructors with military officers and to phase out all contract primary schools.

During this time, the command retired the World War II–era North American B-25 "Mitchell" it had been using for advanced multi-engine training under specialized UPT.

ATC acquired the North American T-38 "Talon" jet, and it became the main advanced trainer aircraft for all student pilots.

During the next few years, increasing numbers of US service members went to Southeast Asia as military advisers to the South Vietnamese armed forces, but the effect on ATC was negligible.

But officials reassigned many of ATC's best instructor pilots to the operational commands, creating severe flying training difficulties.

However, due to the influx of trainees for the Vietnam buildup, Amarillo continued to conduct Split-Phase Basic Military Training for enlisted airmen with Lackland AFB.

[28] As popular support for the Vietnam War waned and American forces began to pull out of Southeast Asia, ATC's training requirements gradually diminished.

Also, during this period the percentage of recruits with a high school education declined to the lowest point in the history of the Air Force.

These included closing Craig and Webb Air Force Bases, increasing reliance on flight simulators, and reducing flying hours in undergraduate pilot training.

The USAF Security Service at Goodfellow AFB, Texas, had conducted all Air Force cryptologic training since 1958.

[2] However, several events in the middle and late 1980s brought about the next cycle of restricted military spending affecting ATC's mission.

By Fiscal Year 1988, funding for technical training dropped by over 15 percent, and the command had to institute a civilian hiring freeze.

[34] In the midst of these world changes, the Persian Gulf War erupted when Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait on 2 August 1990.

[35] Air Force also activated ATC's 11th Contingency Hospital and deployed it to the United Kingdom to treat expected casualties from the war.

However, despite the return to tightened budgets, ATC did not back off from its commitment to fully train personnel to be mission ready upon arrival at their first operational assignment.