[2] Blythe Airport was established by the Civil Aeronautics Administration in the late 1930s as an emergency landing field on the Los Angeles to Phoenix airway.
Blythe AAB was built for the I Troop Carrier Command but was given up by that command, without ever occupying it, to the Fourth Air Force as part of the United States Army Desert Training Center (DTC) The DTC was established by General George S. Patton shortly after the outbreak of the war.
After General Patton was sent to North Africa, the name of the training center was changed to the California-Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA).
During 1943 and 1944, Blythe AAF was used for squadron pilot training, then in December 1944 reverted to an active heavy bombardment base with Consolidated B-24 Liberators.
Known units assigned to Blythe Army Airfield were: At its peak in December 1943, the base had a population just short of 8000 uniformed and civilian personnel.
Today a modern airport has been built on the site of the former wartime airfield; however most of the area of what was Blythe Army Air Field has been abandoned to the natural landscape being empty and undeveloped.
Blythe was served by Bonanza Air Lines with Fairchild F-27 turboprops to Los Angeles (LAX), Phoenix, Tucson and other cities.
Air West was then renamed Hughes Airwest which in turn eventually ceased all F-27 passenger service from Blythe.
Cochise Airlines served Blythe during the early 1980s with Cessna 402 flights nonstop to LAX and also to Yuma, Imperial and Phoenix.