Originally, plans called for the Civil Aeronautics Administration to supply the funds, and, with war's end, Barton county and Great Bend would acquire ownership.

[1] Originally intended to serve merely as a satellite base of Smoky Hill Army Air Field at Salina, Kansas, the physical plant at Great Bend was initially decidedly limited in its functional utility and in size.

From these modest beginnings, which was, of course a skeleton force even for the limited role the field was originally designed to play, Great Bend was to grow impressively, both as a mission and physical plant.

As early as March 1943 it was known that the Great Bend AAF was to be charged with the responsibility of training personnel for the new B-29 very heavy bomber.

on 1 July 1943 Second Air Force transferred the 5th Heavy Bombardment Processing Unit to Great Bend to facilitate the training program.

But the new organization endured for scarcely four months before it was disbanded on 22 October, subsequent to the reassignment of the 58th Bombardment Operational Training Wing to Second Air Force.

Great Bend received the 444th Bombardment Group (VH) and by April 1944, its training completed, the 444th departed for overseas service.

During the remainder of its career, Great Bend was destined to train three more very heavy bombardment groups, the 498th, the 19th, and 333d, and in addition, it retrained the ground echelon of the 489th back from Europe for redeployment to the Pacific.

Thereafter, Great Bend was organized under the standard plan for OTU (Operational Training Unit) bases.

The primary purpose of this program, termed the "Gypsy Task Force," was to take advantage of the good flying weather in Puerto Rico during the winter months, enabling the crews to complete their training much quicker than would otherwise have been the case.

With this phase of training over, the crews would return to Great Bend AAF to prepare for departure to a staging area.

With the arrival of the ground echelon of the 489th Bombardment Group in February 1945 from the European theater, Great Bend became one of the first redeployment installations in the country.

One of the aircraft stored at Great Bend was Kee Bird 45-2176, and other Superfotresses used by Strategic Air Command into the 1950s for various missions.

On 25 October 1945 the base was officially informed by Second Air Force that the installation would be put on a standby basis on 31 December 1945.

Second Air Force had placed Great Bend AAF in the category of those fields whose retention was desirable for standby, with a possibility of being reopened on 30 days' notice.

Sources are lacking by which to trace the subsequent steps leading to complete inactivation and transfer to the Army's District Engineer, Seventh Service Command at Omaha, Nebraska who assumed jurisdiction over the field, pending disposition by March 1951.

A few wartime buildings appear to be in use to the east of Airport Road (SW 40th Avenue) which crosses thought the former station area.