Blytheville, Arkansas was selected as a training location due to its proximity to the Mississippi River, where supplies could easily be shipped to and from the site.

[4] The first casualty of the flight school was Herbert Perkins, a native of Virginia whose BT-13 crashed near the intermediate air field at Luxora, AR.

The War Assets Administration officially closed down the installation in 1946, at which point control and responsibility for the land was transferred to the city of Blytheville.

[1] While the 461st never saw any combat during its time at Blytheville Air Force Base, it was assigned to a number of training exercises and experiments.

[11] On April 1, 1958, the base was formally transferred into the Strategic Air Command, as part of a planned expansion of the B-52 bomber program.

Second, the base was taken to DEFCON 2 and the 97th Bombardment Wing was placed on airborne alert on 22 October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Two B-52G bombers were readied to strike the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons if necessary—for which the wing received the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for its performance during the crisis.

A bomber crew from Blytheville was among the first shot down during Operation Linebacker II, a December 1972 mission targeting complexes in North Vietnam.

In 1972, all of the bombers were temporarily moved to Guam before being returned to Blytheville AFB, at which time the installation resumed normal functions.

Extensive efforts to offset the negative economic effects on the community of Blytheville were undertaken by local and federal officials, who cleaned up the site and then distributed the land to various organizations, including the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

[12] In April 2022, the National Cold War Center began working to restore the facility as its primary exhibit.