The primary mission of MAAF is to provide fully integrated fixed base helicopter operations for the Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.

The brigade currently has Black Hawks, Apaches and Chinooks at Fort Riley — the number fluctuates as aircraft go through maintenance and reset rotations.

Among the participants was a young lieutenant, Henry H. Arnold, who later became Commanding General of the United States Army Air Forces.

Long afterward Arnold recalled the various methods tried for transmitting observations and instructions: a primitive radio, smoke signals, and even colored cards, weighted with iron nuts and dropped through a stovepipe.

The airfield was planned as a refueling point for cross-country flights and was equipped with hangars, underground fuel storage tanks, and lights for night operations.

The primary responsibility of the fliers at Marshall was to provide demonstrations and participate in training exercises for the United States Army Cavalry School at Fort Riley.

The 16th Observation Squadron also had to furnish aircraft to work with ground units all over the Seventh Corps Area, which stretched from Arkansas to North Dakota, and for such special assignments as flying President Calvin Coolidge's mail from North Platte to Rapid City, South Dakota while he was vacationing in the Black Hills in 1927.

However, it occasionally had company, because from 1930 to 1933 the 35th Division Aviation, National Guard, St. Louis, Missouri, was using the field as a training center for its summer encampments.

However, Marshall remained a relatively small base; its primary mission to support Army ground forces training using Observation and Liaison aircraft.

It well deserved the term "composite" for by that time it had acquired 15 P-39 Airacobra fighters and five B-25 Mitchell medium bombers as well as liaison planes and was flying all sorts of tactical air missions.

Besides photographic work, observation, and artillery adjustment, its pilots flew air-ground support demonstrations and simulated strafing, bombing and chemical warfare missions.

On 1 August 1945 the airmen at Marshall put on a giant air show in which they displayed to the general public the tactical skills they had acquired during the war.

The Air Force decision in 1948 to eliminate all enlisted pilots by the end of the year caused a drastic shake-up at Marshall AFB.

Undoubtedly the most dramatic episode of the postwar period at Marshall AFB came early in 1949 when the base contributed its facilities, planes, and helicopters to "Operation Haylift", bringing relief to snowbound areas in several Western states.

Another memorable event was the emergency landing on 6 August 1948 of a B-29 Superfortress which had made a record-breaking 5,120-mile non-stop flight from Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base, Germany.

However, in September 1949, Tenth Air Force established an Instrument Training Center at Marshall AFB to provide a refresher course for all its pilots outside of the 56th Fighter Wing.

Thanks to conflict-driven innovations in flight and cargo hauling operations, helicopters assumed a much larger peacetime Army role after the Korean War.

Big news arrived on 21 July 1955, with receipt of a directive to activate the first Army Aviation Unit Training Command (AAUTC) at Fort Riley.

The 71st Transportation Battalion was assigned the training mission on 24 January, and the AAUTC became operational on 18 February, making it the first of its kind in the Army.