These were induction centers for new recruits entering the Army Air Corps with no military experience.

This was the case except for the West Coast Air Corps Training Center at Moffett Field, near Sunnyvale, California.

The City Council of Santa Ana wanted the new center located near it so they arranged to lease a 409-acre site for $6,400 per year from M. H. Whittier Co. Ltd. with an option to buy at $500 per acre.

Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) was a huge basic training camp.

Plans were also made to move the entire Army Air Force administrative offices at Moffett Field to the Santa Ana area.

The work was to be completed in 120 calendar days The Base would not have a flying field as a part of its facilities.

The Orange County Airport was also selected as the site for the Headquarters Squadron originally located at Moffett Field.

Arrangements were also made for the Air Corps lease five acres of land for a small facility at the adjacent airport to serve as a sort of "taxi service" for the Army Air Force officials to permit them to contact various points of flying activity along the West Coast.

Newly inducted soldiers, earmarked for the Army Air Forces, were given 9 weeks of basic training and then testing to determine if they were to be pilots, bombardiers, navigators, mechanics, etc.

In late 1945 Japanese aliens from the alien internment camps being returned to Japan by the Immigrations and Naturalization Service (INS) were housed here while awaiting transportation to Japan Finally on 13 March 1946 the Army deactivated the SAAAB.

The federal government sold a 76-acre chunk of the land, including a rail spur and some warehouses, back to the Segerstrom family who originally owned the propery.

[2] In the ensuing years some of the buildings on the base were sold and moved piecemeal, others became part of colleges.

Two years later, in June 1958, the Air National Guard received a five-acre parcel of land and the remaining 260 acres, including the five-acre air base water facility, was declared surplus and turned over to the GSA.

On 29 June 1979, a plaque was dedicated to "all pilots, bombardiers and navigators who trained here that contributed to an early victory in World War II".

This plaque was placed on the Air National Guard base, which is the last active duty post on the original location of the SAAAB.

In literature, Santa Ana Army Air Base is notable as being one of the two main settings for the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and subsequent film and television adaptations of the book.

Heller acknowledges at the beginning of the novel that he has heavily fictionalized the other main setting – the Italian island of Pianosa – suggesting that SAAAB is depicted more realistically.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency