Occupying the site of the first Wright Flying School, it was named in honor of Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell, a native of Atmore, Alabama.

Maxwell AFB is also the site of Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery, a minimum security facility for male inmates.

Toward the end of February 1910, the Wright Brothers decided to open one of the world's earliest flying schools at the site that would subsequently become Maxwell AFB.

Diminished postwar activity caused the U.S. War Department in 1919 to announce that it planned to close thirty-two facilities around the country, including the Aviation Repair Depot.

City officials were not surprised to hear that Aviation Repair Depot remained on the list, because 350 civilian employees had been laid off in June 1921.

Maneuvering to avoid a group of children playing below, he struck a flagpole hidden by the tall sugarcane and was killed instantly.

Maxwell Field, as most Army air stations and depots developed during World War I, was on leased properties with temporary buildings being the mainstay of construction.

These critical situations eventually led to the Air Corps Act of 1926 and the two major programs that dramatically transformed Army airfields.

Taking up the cause of Maxwell Field was freshman Congressman J. Lister Hill, a World War I veteran who served with the 17th and 71st U.S. Infantry Regiments.

He, as well as other Montgomery leaders, recognized the historical significance of the Wright Brother's first military flying school and the potential of Maxwell Field to the local economy.

However, General Patrick not wanting to alienate the new and up and coming Congressman (who was also a member of the House Military Affairs Committee) sought to appease Hill by offering to create an observation squadron at Maxwell Field.

Hill, frustrated with the lack of positive response from Generals Patrick and Fechet, moved up the chain of command and passed on the correspondence he had with General Fechet to Secretary of War Dwight Davis, Assistant Secretary of War for Air F. Trubee Davison, and Army Chief of Staff Charles P. Summerall.

Pilots from the field were also involved in completing the first leg of a test designed to establish an airmail route between the Gulf Coast and the northern Great Lakes area.

By early 1928, the decision of basing a new Army Air Corps attack group had come down to Shreveport, Louisiana, and Montgomery.

Flexing his congressional muscle, Hill persuaded Assistant Secretary Davidson and now chief of the Air Corps Major General Fechet to hold off the official announcement until Montgomery had a second look by the War Department.

During his stay General Foulois met with local Chamber of Commerce chairman Jesse Hearin and Maxwell Field post commandant, Major Walter R. Weaver.

However, General Foulois guided the conversation towards the impending movement of the Air Corps Tactical School and he favored Maxwell Field for the new home.

Hearin immediately worked up an option on another one thousand acres (4 km²) for the Air Corps Tactical School should Montgomery not be favored with the attack group.

In December 1928, after much debate and political maneuvering it was announced officially by the Assistant Secretary of War that Shreveport would be getting the attack group and that the Army Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) would be coming to Maxwell Field.

This was not including an additional $324,000 the Secretary of War had approved previously for non-commissioned officer barracks and a school building after a conference with Congressman Hill.

On December 17, 1929, Congressman Lister Hill introduced a bill to appropriate $320,000 for the acquiring of 1,075 acres (4 km2) of land in Montgomery County as a part of an expansion program for Maxwell Field.

On January 25, 1930, President Herbert Hoover asked Congress to re-appropriate an additional $100,000 for the main school building at Maxwell Field.

In February 1930, Congressman Hill's resolution was passed in the House of Representatives and 80 acres (320,000 m2) were to be added to Maxwell Field for expansion purposes.

George B. Ford and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., were hired by the Army Quartermaster Corps and they designed the overall layout of ACTS at Maxwell.

Hill's request was justified by increased enrollment at the Air Corps Tactical School and the desperate need for employment for the local Montgomery population.

One of the school's notable achievements was its development of two aerial acrobatic teams: the "Three Men on a Flying Trapeze", put together by then-Captain Claire L. Chennault in 1932, and the Skylarks in 1935.

In the early twenty-first century, the emphasis shifted to air power's role in confronting international and transnational terrorism by both state-sponsored and non-state actors.

AU grew materially from inadequate quarters, classrooms, and instructional technology into a campus that is as modern and up-to-date as those of any other in the U. S. armed forces.

Maxwell Air Force Base is zoned to Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools for grades K-8.

[20] In November 2020, the Air Force announced that Maxwell AFB is its preferred choice for basing the MH-139A Grey Wolf Formal Training Unit.