In 1942, the United States Army Air Corps picked Walnut Ridge as the location of one of the new basic flying schools being built to train tens of thousands of military pilots.

Trainees flew a total of 160,646 hours from 1 November 1942 to 30 September 1943, well above the average of 129,474 for a Basic Flying School in the Southeast Training Command.

It performed phase maintenance and other updates on training aircraft from bases around the United States, including C-47 Skytrains, P-40 Warhawks, P-51 Mustangs, B-17 Flying Fortresses and later in the war, B-29 Superfortresses.

[1] With the end of World War II, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) established a disposal and reclamation facility at Walnut Ridge for aircraft unneeded by the United States military.

[1] Fighters, bombers, trainers, and all other manner of aircraft were offered for sale to the public, some of the planes being newly manufactured and flown to Walnut Ridge directly from the assembly line.

However, most aircraft sent to Walnut Ridge were dismantled and their airframes shredded, their hulks finding their way to two large aluminum smelters built on the flight line ramp.

The smelters turned the aluminum of the aircraft into ingots, which were recycled and sold to industry for use in manufacturing a wide variety of items, from toasters to mobile homes.