They were used during World War I as part of the Third Air Instructional Center, American Expeditionary Forces for training United States airmen prior to being sent into combat on the Western Front.

While the United States possessed a relatively enormous pool of human resources, they lacked the well developed training methods and aircraft production capabilities of the Allies.

In order to maximize the resources of both, the French submitted a memorandum to General George O. Squier, then the Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army, suggesting the establishment of an American advanced flying school in France.

Issoudun, located about 100 miles southeast of Paris, was primarily chosen because the surrounding countryside was extremely level and relatively sparsely populated with wide-open spaces for flying fields.

While the initial pace of building was hectic in an effort to make the base operational as quickly as possible, construction at Issoudun was never really completed and continued right up to the 1918 Armistice with Germany.

As a result of this furious pace of construction, Issoudun was fully operational and training was being conducted within a months of Pershing accepting the base.

[1] The advanced aviation schools in the U.S. were slow to develop and lacked both aircraft of the type being used at the front and pilots with combat experience to act as instructors.

The various fields at Issoudun (initially nine, later expanded to 15) each provided a different phase of instruction, allowing the student to progress in successive stages of training until adequately prepared to participate at the front.