The Garden City, Kansas, Chamber of Commerce did most of the effective work in getting an airfield established in their area.

At first, all of its energies were concentrated on acquiring one of the RAF training fields which were to be established in the United States during 1941–1942.

In June 1941, the Chamber of Commerce sent representatives with an elaborate booklet to the War Department, setting forth the advantages of locating a flying school in Finney County, Kansas, buttressed by photographs of the area, and containing information on water and natural gas resources, and weather conditions.

On 16 June 1942, surveying crews began work at the site outlining runways and staking buildings.

Consequently, the first days were a sort of combined operation, which began with the farmers threshing a strip down the proposed runways to enable surveyors to start.

The construction program at Garden City was cut off before it really got under way by the orders of Headquarters, Army Air Forces, in June 1942, stopping work on nine of the 14 proposed British Operational Training Units.

From the middle of June until the latter part of July 1942, the Garden City officials did not know what kind of installation would be located in their community, if any.

By the middle of July, the Division Engineers had received a set of plans for the construction of the new type of base.

The base was located on an irregular plot of high ground adjacent to the Arkansas River.

Runways and apron (500 x 4,750 feet) were constructed with a ten-inch gravel base placed in layers on a six-inch compacted earth subbase, and surfaced with one and one-half-inch asphalt cement; the service strip (80 feet wide) was a six-inch concrete slab, thickened to nine inches at the expansion and construction joints.

The assigned mission of Garden City AAF was pilot training for basic students.

In September 1943, twin-engine training was introduced flying Cessna UC-78 Bobcat advanced trainers (AT-17).

After July 1945, the primary mission was reversed, that is, the major activity became the preparation of aircraft to be flown away from the base.

On 18 May 1947, ATSC transferred Garden City AAF to the Army's District Engineer, Seventh Service Command at Omaha, Nebraska, who assumed jurisdiction over the field, pending disposition.

The renamed new Garden City Municipal Airport served as a mid-continent stop for one of the country's first coast-to-coast air mail services.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency