[3] The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a general aviation facility (the commercial service category requires 2,500 enplanements per year).

The 4,205-acre (17.02 km2) site is bordered by low rolling sandhills to the east, and a wide plain on the north, west and south.

Workers moved into garages, store rooms, cellars, attics, and even their own trailers in established parks.

Many of the workers were Sioux Indians from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, Mexicans from the Southwest, and African Americans from Wichita and Kansas City.

The airfield had been planned as a training facility for paratroops and air commandos, which needed long runways for C-47 Skytrains to tow gliders.

Training included teaching the B-29 air crews how to drop bombs and read navigational, aeronautical and bombsight equipment.

However, in the fall of 1946 Nebraska congressman Arthur L. Miller stated that the airfield would be withdrawn from the surplus list to be reactivated for Troop Carrier Command training, in response to strained relations with the Soviet Union.

The government removed the railroad tracks and auctioned off 240 buildings, including lavatories, guard houses and barracks.

[1] In the year ending May 31, 2022; the airport had 13,697 aircraft operations, average 38 per day: 90% general aviation, 9% airline, <1% air taxi, and <1% military.