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Gunter Annex
On 27 Aug. 1940, the AAF leased the Montgomery Municipal Airport for use as a military airfield. During WW II, the field was the home of the AAF Basic Flying Training School and was named in honor of Mayor William A. Gunter. It later housed Extension Course Institute, AU Field Printing Plant, School of Aviation Medicine, and Air Force Senior NCO Academy. Tenants included the Air Defense Sector, HQ 14th Air Force, and Standard Systems Group. The field became an Air Force base in 1948 and an Air Force station in 1973. It returned to base status in 1988 and later became an annex to Maxwell AFB in 1992.
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Gunter Basic Flying Training School
Activated on 27 Aug. 1940, the school was among the first established under WWII Air Corps expansion program. BT-13s were the principal planes used in the 10-week training course until 1944 when they were replaced by AT-6s. Once, nearly 400 airplanes were involved in the training program and the skies over the field were hailed as the "densest air traffic in the world." The school closed September 1945, with over 12,000 cadets—American, British, and French—earning their "wings" and with British cadets dominating early classes. At the war's end, 600 Chinese students received preflight training here.
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