Moore Field
| Moore Air Base Moore Field  |
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|---|---|
| Part of Air Training Command (ATC) | |
| Hidalgo County, near McAllen, Texas | |
2006 USGS Airphoto
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 Moore AB
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| Coordinates | 26°23′01.2444″N 98°20′1.06″W / 26.383679000°N 98.3336278°WCoordinates: 26°23′01.2444″N 98°20′1.06″W / 26.383679000°N 98.3336278°W |
| Type | Air Base |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | United States Air Force |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1941 |
| In use | 1941-1961 |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | Air Training Command |
| Occupants | 3301st Pilot Training Group (Contract Primary) |
Moore Air Base is an inactive United States Air Force facility located fourteen miles (21 km) northwest of Mission, Texas. It was deactivated on 1 February 1961. The installation was sold to private concerns and partially transferred to the Department of Agriculture on 15 July 1963.
Moore Field was opened on 20 September 1941 as an Army Air Forces Training Command single-engine training school. It was named for 2d Lt. Frank Murchison Moore, on 22 November. Moore was a native of Houston, who was killed in World War I. The 1,087-acre (4.40 km2) airfield was the home of the 503d, 504th and 506th school squadrons (Army Air Forces Pilot School (Advanced Single Engine) were the flying training units. The flying school was redesignated as the 2d Training Group in 1943.
The facility conducted advanced pilot training of 6,000 pilots using BT-13, PT-19, AT-6, P-36 and P-43 aircraft. The school was reorganized as the 2529th Army Air Force Base Unit (Pilot School, Advanced Single Engine) on 1 April 1944. The school and airfield were closed on 31 October 1945.
In 1950 part of the field was operating as the Weaver H. Baker Memorial Sanatorium, and part was jointly operated by Mission, McAllen, and Edinburg as Tri-Cities Municipal Airport.
In June 1954, after the closing of the sanatorium and as part of the Cold War military expansion by the United States, the United States Air Force Air Training Command announced that Moore Field would be reactivated as a contract pilot training school. Air Training Command had planned to reopen the base in 1954, but delayed the reopening 12 months due to a freeze in military construction budgets.
The 3301st Pilot Training Group (Contract Primary) was reassigned to Moore from Columbus AFB, Mississippi on 1 April 1955. Training was conducted by California Eastern Airways Incorporated, using T-28s and T-34s. In August 1959, Moore began using the jet-powered T-37 in place of the T-38s. With the upgrade to jet trainers, the contractor at the base was changed to Beiser Aviation Corporation.
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