Activated on 26 June 1942, the mission of Big Spring AAF was to train aviation cadets in high-altitude precision bombing as bombardiers.

It was one of the "West Texas Bombardier Quadrangle" schools of the Army Air Forces Training Command.

[2] Construction of the Army Air Forces Bombardier School began on 15 May 1942, and the airfield received its first class of cadets (118 men) on 16 September 1942.

Operational squadrons under the 78th BTG were: The base was declared surplus and was turned over to the War Assets Administration after being closed.

However, the command was not formally able to operationally activate the base until 1 January 1952 because the City of Big Spring had difficulty acquiring clear title to some of the property it intended to transfer to ATC The facility was brought back into service as a primary training installation because of the Korean War and the need for additional pilots.

Four months later, on 18 May 1952, ATC changed the name of Big Spring to Webb Air Force Base to memorialize 1st Lieutenant James L. Webb, a Big Spring native and World War II combat pilot in Europe, who was killed in a mishap off the Japanese coast flying a P-51 Mustang in 1949 during a training mission.

In addition, three units of the Big Spring Correctional Center (a federal prison privately operated by Cornell Companies) are located on the base grounds (as well as FCI Big Spring, which is a separate facility and operated directly by the Federal Bureau of Prisons).

Following the retirement of an assistant city manager in May 1995, Bobby McDonald, a member of the Big Spring Air Park Development Board, proposed preserving one of the World War II-era hangars at the airport.

[15] Exhibits include a piece of sidewalk with a drawing of Snoopy and a stained glass window that was originally located in the base chapel.