Dalhart Army Air Field
Dalhart, Dallam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Dallam and Hartley Counties’ generally flat terrain, thermal activity, dry, clear skies and a local bond to purchase more than 3,000 acres of land southwest of Dalhart resulted in the opening of a training site during World War II. In May 1942, Dalhart Army Air Field [DAAF] (U.S. Army Air Forces Glider School [USAAF]) opened. While under construction the command’s temporary headquarters operated from a tent city in Amarillo. In Sept. 1942, cadets began arriving for training on the new Waco CG-4A “Hadrian” glider. Cadets honed their skills––takeoff, flight while in tow behind C-47s on 350 feet of nylon rope, holding position on a double tow & recovery techniques involving being snatched by a tow aircraft flying overhead––above the Texas panhandle. Cadets also learned infantry skills, as they were expected to serve as combat soldiers after landing. DAAF’s training mission changed in March 1943, when the glider school transferred to the South Plains Army Air Field (Lubbock). DAAF's new assignment became the training of B-17 bomber crews as replacements for losses suffered from sorties in the European theater of operations. Cadets flew training missions over practice target areas in the panhandle, while fighter aircraft cadets practiced bomber escort duty at two satellite fields––Aux. #1 (Hartley) & Aux. #2 (Dallam)––built in 1943. However, combat needs late in the war once again altered DAAF’s mission. By early 1944, America’s strategic bombing needs lay in the Pacific and several bombardment groups (B-29s) trained at DAAF for deployment in thePpacific. One of these, the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 504th Bombardment Group–– later selected by Col. Paul W. Tibbets, jr.–– served as the core of a unit trained to drop atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. Thus, in little more than three years, DAAF and Dallam & Hartley counties were all impacted by the evolving demands of the U.S. war effort. In Dec. 1945, DAAF closed bringing an end to the USAAF presence in Dallam & Hartley counties. TEXAS IN WORLD WAR II – 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In May 1942, as the U.S. mobilized for World War II, flat, dry-skied Dallam and Hartley Counties made an ideal training ground, and Dalhart Army Air Field opened as a glider school for the new Waco CG-4A "Hadrian." Cadets learned to be snatched aloft on nylon tow ropes behind C-47s and to fight as infantry once they landed. As the war's needs shifted, DAAF retrained to turn out B-17 crews and then B-29 bombardment groups — one of them, the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 504th Group, becoming the core of the unit Col. Paul Tibbets led to drop the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. The field closed that December.
Why it matters
A remote Texas panhandle airfield traces the whole arc of America's air war, from experimental gliders to the crews of the atomic mission — a reminder of how deeply the home front was woven into global conflict.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Paul W. Tibbets Jr.
Related events
- · World War II
- · Atomic bombing of Japan (1945)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Doris Bristol Tracy, WASP Pilot
La Veta, CO
This memorial honors Doris Bristol Tracy, one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), the pioneering program created in 1942 that trained women to fly military aircraft on non-combat missions so male pilots could deploy. The WASP ferried planes, towed gunnery targets, and tested aircraft; decades later, in 2009, the surviving members were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Tracy's marker ties a small Colorado town to that national story.
South Plains Army Air Field
Lubbock, TX
During World War II, the Army leased and expanded Lubbock's municipal airport into the South Plains Army Air Field, a leading center for training combat glider pilots. Here men learned to fly the engineless Waco CG-4A, the workhorse glider that carried troops silently behind enemy lines. Remarkably, the field trained nearly 80% of America's combat glider pilots, who went on to fly in the D-Day landings, Operation Market Garden, and the crossing of the Rhine. Its story is now told at the Silent Wings Museum on this site.
Dagley Field
Lubbock, TX
On the eve of World War II, the United States realized it would need pilots by the thousands and launched the Civilian Pilot Training Program to turn college students into aviators. At Texas Technological College in Lubbock, roughly 6,500 cadets moved through the program, and half of them took to the air from this dirt-runway field run by local flyer 'Dag' Dagley. When the war's demand for pilots faded, the field closed and its quarter-section became the College Heights neighborhood.
Neblett Hospital and Clinic
Canyon, TX
The Panhandle town of Canyon spent years trying and failing to fund a public hospital before Dr. Robert A. Neblett stepped in. A Tennessee-born, University of Texas–trained specialist in children's medicine, he announced in 1937 that he would build one himself, and that year a sixteen-room, air-conditioned hospital rose on 16th Street. It closed while he served nearly two and a half years in the Pacific during World War II, reopened on his return, and cared for Canyon residents and West Texas State students until 1975.