Reese Air Force Base: Pilot Training on the High Plains

Six miles west of downtown Lubbock, where the flat land stretches unobstructed in every direction, there was once an Air Force base that trained pilots for roughly half a century.

Reese Air Force Base began construction in August of nineteen forty-one as the Lubbock Army Air Corps Advanced Flying School, part of the rapid defense buildup before American entry into World War Two. The Army chose Lubbock for reasons that are obvious from the air: the terrain is flat, the weather is clear far more days than not, and the horizon is visible for thirty miles. There is very little to hit during training flights.

During the war, British Royal Air Force cadets flew training missions from Reese. Because Lubbock sits roughly the same distance from Terrell, Texas, where the British had their main training base, as London sits from Cork, Ireland. The Americans used Lubbock as a stand-in for Cork in navigation exercises, teaching British airmen the compass headings they would need over the Irish Sea.

The base closed after the war, reopened in nineteen forty-nine as Reese Air Force Base, and its primary mission throughout its history was pilot training, specifically advanced jet training. At various points it was among the busiest pilot training facilities in the Air Force.

In nineteen ninety-five, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission selected Reese for decommissioning. It closed on September thirtieth, nineteen ninety-seven. The grounds became Reese Technology Center, an industrial and research park. The runways are still there. The sky above them is still flat and clear.