World War II With the outbreak of
World War II in Europe it was decided to build a military airfield in Harlingen. Col John R. Morgan was the first commanding officer of the
Harlingen Aerial Gunnery School, arriving in August 1941; he was to hold that appointment through World War II. On June 30, 1941 a contract was let for Morgan and Zachary, El Paso and Laredo builders, to start the military airfield construction. The mission of Harlingen Army Airfield was to train aerial gunners. The school received its first assigned cadre in August 1941. Its primary mission, with an initial student load of 600, was that of training aerial gunnery students in a five-week (extended to six weeks in 1943) training program. Over 48,000 soldiers were trained until the school, one of three such types in the country, closed in 1945. It was initially assigned to the
United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Gulf Coast Training Center as a flexible gunnery school, with the 78th Service Group being designated as the first host organization at the new airfield. The airfield had two parallel north–south 6000-foot runways and two 5,200-foot runways aligned NE/SW and NW/SE. A large parking ramp and several aircraft hangars were built along with warehouses, dormitories, a fire station, some water towers and a number of support buildings, all wood and tar paper on concrete blocks. An auxiliary airfield was built at
Port Isabel, Texas to support training and flight operations at Harlingen. Training was conducted in air-to-air & air-to-surface gunnery; air-to-air training used a variety of aircraft, including
AT-6 Texans,
BT-13 Valiants,
P-63 Kingcobras,
B-17 Flying Fortresses,
B-26 Marauder and
B-24 Liberators. For ground-based training, facilities included moving target ranges and gunnery simulators. The first class of aerial gunners graduated from the Gunnery School in January 1942. In October 1959, ATC directed
Mather AFB, California to move its primary-basic navigator training to Harlingen AFB by early 1962. This training had to be relocated so that Mather could take over
Keesler AFB's
electronic warfare officer (EWO) training by early 1963. In 1963, construction and renovation began on the site to be transformed into a military academy modeled after the
United States Marine Corps. The school,
Marine Military Academy, was opened for the first school year in 1965. The school still stands to this day and can house up to ~250 cadets. ==Notable appearances in media==