[1]: 30  They installed 6,000 feet of pierced steel plank (PSP) runway with over-runs, a parallel taxiway, and aprons at a cost of $2.7 million.

The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron, code named Farm Gate began operations in South Vietnam in 1961.

[4]: 70  On 16 February 1970 Detachment 9 was moved from Pleiku AB to Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand.

[4]: 113 In mid-1965 Pleiku AB became a forward operating location for four Douglas AC-47 Spooky gunships of B Flight, 4th Air Commando Squadron.

[5]: 70 In September 1965 the 21st Tactical Air Support Squadron equipped with 30 O-1 Bird Dogs began operating from Pleiku AB.

[6]: 176 The 9th Air Commando Squadron was activated at Pleiku on 25 January 1967 flying special operations missions using modified C-47s and O-2B Skymasters.

[8] In late October 1967, some of the 604th Air Commando Squadron Combat Dragon A-37A Dragonflys moved to the base from Bien Hoa AB to perform armed and visual reconnaissance missions and night interdiction flights in the Tiger Hound operational area over southeastern Laos.

[10][9] During the stay at Pleiku, the squadron maintained a forward SAR alert unit at Da Nang Air Base from 1 April 1968 – 1 September 1969.

[10] With the departure of its personnel in late 1969, a small group remained at Pleiku for a short period of time to advise the RVNAF.

[5]: 253 After the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, Pleiku AB became a center of reconnaissance in the Central Highlands, with the RVNAF monitoring PAVN activity and treaty violations.

Ban Me Thuot controlled Highways 14 and 21, vital lines of communication from the southern Central Highlands to Saigon and the coast.

At Pleiku airfield, the small ARVN garrison came under attack and was forced to defend the control tower, preventing attempts to fly in reinforcements.

The day Ban Me Thuot fell, President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu called an emergency high level meeting at Cam Ranh Bay.

Unfortunately for the South Vietnamese, the commander of the region, General Phạm Văn Phú, misinterpreted this order and directed an immediately evacuation of both cities.

At Pleiku airfield sixty-four aircraft were abandoned with little effort to destroy them before evacuating and large quantities of fuel and ordnance were left behind undamaged and ready for the PAVN to use.

The former USAF control tower and large fire department building on the flightline remains standing; their current use is undetermined.